API: Administration’s Budget Launches Assault on American Consumers

The administration’s final budget proposal, which includes new energy taxes, signals a lame duck assault on American consumers, jobs and our nation’s economy, according to API President and CEO Jack Gerard.

“No longer constrained by electoral considerations, the administration has shifted from a balanced all-of-the-above strategy on energy to an extreme policy objective: to choke off America’s energy renaissance and keep fossil fuels in the ground at the expense of consumers. The $10 per-barrel tax hike proposal and other higher taxes on American production proposed in the budget are just the latest expressions of what has been an increasingly hostile campaign against American consumers and our nation’s economy.

“The $10 per-barrel tax hike – which would add about 30% to the cost of a barrel of oil and potentially about 25 cents to the cost of a gallon of gasoline, according to reports – should be a wake-up call. This is what ‘leave-it-in-the-ground’ ideology really means: harm to consumers, diminished American competitiveness, weakened energy security and a return to energy dependence. It’s a head-in-the-sand movement.

“The proposed tax hikes could also have an impact on food prices and all sorts of goods that rely on transportation to reach consumers. Lower-income and middle class Americans, for whom essentials like transportation and grocery bills consume a greater percentage of their income, would be harmed the most by these outrageous tax proposals.